Mon 30 Sep 2019
A Mystery Review by David Vineyard: NICHOLAS FREELING – Lady Macbeth.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[3] Comments
NICHOLAS FREELING – Lady Macbeth. Henri Castang #10. Andre Deutsch Ltd, UK, hardcover, 1988. No US edition.
I’ll be honest, I am now, and have been since his first book, a Nicholas Freeling fan. I devoured the Van der Valk novels, one of my favorite modern mystery novels is King of the Rainy Country, mourned when he killed off Van der Valk, took solace in the two books about Arlette, Van der Valk’s French widow, and was doubtful when he returned with French cop Henri Castang (“A cop, you know, shouldn’t allow himself to think much.”) of the national Police Judiciaire.
After all, Castang’s artist wife Vera was a Czech, just as Dutch Van der Valk’s wife had been a fish out of water Frenchwoman in the Netherlands. Castang was another good cop of a certain age, and perhaps only the presence of his mentor Richards really differentiated that much from Van der Valk. Why had he bothered to kill off Van der Valk for a slightly younger clone?
It took about three books before I began to see why. Castang freed Freeling in the same ways Van der Valk had begun to limit him. Even late in the series, with Europe changing and Castang and the PJ now part of the European Union it was obvious he was a better and deeper character, if he never quite got the credit for it.
Lady MacBeth not only gives us another fine mystery, it also gives us Castang as part time narrator of the novel, not just the focal point, a welcome chance to hear his voice directly for long time fans. And it adds a bonus.
The plot begins with the most ordinary of events. Friends of Castang ask his help when the female member of a seemingly perfect couple goes missing, and the friends in question are Arthur and Arlette Davidson (He’s nice; like his wife; I like them both. They’re both a pest. She, particularly.), yes, that Arlette, whose taste for solving mysteries hasn’t faded. She and Arthur are among the other narrators.
Castang sort of meets Van der Valk. (*)
Forgive a brief geek out.
Back to our story, Guy and Sibillle are neighbors and friends of the Davidsons. They seemed a perfect couple, he extremely nice, she strong and smart (Sibille was a fiercely proud woman. Also ambitious, tenacious, hard if you like and self-willed.). On vacation to the Voges, a mountainous district where the impoverished castle Sibille grew up in was, the two argued and Sibillle, according to Guy, demanded he stop, got out of the car, walked into the trees, and has not been seen since. He returned home expecting her return. Time has passed and she has not shown up. Arlette suspects murder.
Castang, now Commissaire Castang, suspects a domestic quarrel and a stubborn wife, but agrees to pacify Arthur and Arlette (Arthur is certainly meant to be Freeling himself) by making a few inquiries. After all it could be murder.
Or something much much worse.
Mysteries often begin with small seemingly unimportant matters. Not with murders of great import, but some small matter like an unresolved quarrel and haughty wife who may just have walked out despite of all the outward appearances. Castang, Arlette, neither of them can imagine where this simple domestic drama is going to lead.
Granted Freeling does not write direct simple to the point prose. He ambles around the point a bit, takes seemingly unrelated tangents, indulges in stream of consciousness styling here and there, notes small details of life, and somehow manages to make all that painfully suspenseful always steering you back on course to revelations you never expected, to violence that comes from human frailty, but is no less shocking for it when it involves someone caught up in what one Freeling character calls “awful moral righteousness.â€
Subtly, and with great skill as a writer, and as a master at misdirection, he carries you along in the narrative to the shocking ending, to something much more than domestic violence, and much darker and closer to today’s headlines, always in the capable human and humanistic hands of the likes of Castang and Arlette, not triumphant in unraveling the mystery, merely lost in the complexity of human needs.
—
(*) Van der Valk and Patricia Moyes’ Henry and Emily Tibbet exchanged crossovers back in their series.
September 30th, 2019 at 6:30 pm
I have been wondering why there has never been an American edition of this book, whether there was something in the subject matter (or whatever) that made it unpublishable. I’ve not read it, but to me, it sounds little different than the other Castang books. In fact, David, based on your review, I might even enjoy it more than the one or two I’ve read.
Of course the answer could be very very simple. The previous Castang book was published by Viking; the next one was by Mysterious Press. This one came along over there at the same time he was between publishers over here.
PS. I’ve also wondered why Freeling decided to go with Castang rather than Van der Valk, other than he simply got a little tired of the latter. I never read enough of either to be able to say on my own.
October 1st, 2019 at 5:58 pm
Van Der Valk was middle aged when he started where Castang was young enough that Freeling could write the series more or less in real time where Van der Valk was pushing retirement (Arlette was younger).
I think too he was just tired of the character, and maybe fan expectations. He may have just wanted to prove to himself and others Van der Valk wasn’t a fluke. By the time he killed him, Freeling had written numerous short stories and there had been a movie and a television series that may all have simply tired Freeling of his creation.
And too, Van Der Valk was an instant hit, frozen in the mind of readers. There just wasn’t much leeway for Freeling whereas Castang was a new blank canvas, growing and changing with each book.
I can’t think of anything upsetting in this one, so either the different format, or the publishing change you mention is likely the reason. Books, even by major writers, sometimes fall in between the cracks. Otto posts on his FB feed once in a while, and I might try and ask him. It’s likely more a contractual thing than anything else. By then I was getting my new Freeling’s from Waterstones as they came out in the UK rather than waiting.
While you can pick up the series at any point I think you miss something if you don’t start at the beginning and watch Castang grow. Like real officers in the PJ he doesn’t stay in one location, and over the years he and Vera have to adjust to several new posts, especially after the EU came about.
October 5th, 2019 at 8:39 pm
I read the Van der Valk series, but somehow didn’t continue with Nicholas Freeling’s work. I’ll have to correct that after reading your fine review of LADY MACBETH.